A recent Supreme Court ruling has stated that the Panipat-Jalandhar national highway in India, involving an investment of Rs. 4,500cr (US$780 million), will be completed by its existing contractor Soma/Isolux Infrastructure instead of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) as had been directed by the Punjab and Haryana high Court earlier.

The concessionaire of the road, Soma Isolux NH One Tollway Private Limited, had expressed difficulties in completing the remaining 40 km stretch of the highway without shifting of the toll plazas and said that it was necessary for continued backing of its financiers. The toll plazas would be shifted to other places so that vehicles playing on the highway may not bypass plazas to skip the toll.

However, a Punjab and Haryana High Court order had asked the NHAI to take over the 291 Km Panipat-Jalandhar highway project from the project concessionaire as it failed to complete the project by 2012.

Now, the Supreme Court is taking into account the fact that the existing contractor has already completed 71% of the work and invested 77% of the total cost to sanction that NHAI allows the shifting of the toll plazas or, at least, files an affidavit stating the reasons for not allowing it.